How hard is it to sell a car right now?

Sizzler

I saw an article in the Indo the other saying due to the impending VRT changes and the 'credit crunch' (that 'ol chestnut) 2nd hand car prices had dropped 20-30% this year alone. This was based on a survey carried out by GE Money.

I was casually selling my car the last few months, defnition of casual, I had a price in my head which was in line with what everybody else was asking on CBG & Carzone and I couldnt be arsed if someone bought it or not. Had a few tyrekickers come out but only one offer. That was 2 months ago, and he offered me 1k less than I was willing to go, so I said feck it, no thanks. I was happy to hold onto it.

Fast forward to May and I'm now looking to actually sell it as I want to nip across and get a car from the UK for July 1st and with the STG rate dropping I figured it was a good time.

I checked out carzone again and I relisted my car as the cheapest for that spec, mileage and year by €500. I log on yesterday and some lad has gone in and put practically the same car in for €1000 less than mine !

I'm only selling an 03 so a grand less is a lot in the scheme of things!

How are people finding it now? Have you had to drop your trousers to get a sale?

-Chris-

Nothing is selling at the moment really, loads of stories of people being the cheapest car on Carzone for their spec and not receiving a single phone call. Dealers stuffed to the gills with used cars.

I think everyone's just waiting to see what happens with the economy before they splash out.

anonymousjunkie

i've been trying to sell mine for the last couple of weeks. Plenty of hits, but no calls, not a one. Car is reasonably priced too.

A friend of mine works in the car trade and is finding it very slow at the moment.

Padraig Mor

Don't want to sell mine for a little while yet but am looking at importing so will need to sell privately. To test the waters, I listed it in the free ads sections in the Evening Echo (by far the best place to dell a car round Cork). Was listed at 3 grand less than a similar car, and would be among the cheapest on Carzone. Not a single call - not one!

cashmni1

Same as that, in carzone and CBG, not one call. Car very aggressively priced and high spec diesel passat. The sale of the car is holding up my mortgage aproval.....typical.

johnf2020

I spoke to a guy who sells classic cars yesterday----Said he hadn't sold one in 3 months. They dont drop much in value,,,,so price is not the issue.
Actually I dont think that dropping prices will make a difference. Traffic through showrooms has literally stopped . I think much of this stems from the fact that buyers are unsure of what happens in July,,so they are holding off to see.

Padraig Mor

johnf2020 wrote: »

Traffic through showrooms has literally stopped . I think much of this stems from the fact that buyers are unsure of what happens in July,,so they are holding off to see.

I think much of the July confusion can be laid at the foot of the dealers who, rather than try to promote the upcoming potential bargains to be had, are mainly focussing on trying to flog titchy-engined petrol "Paddy specials" to none-the-wiser customers while they still can.

More importantly, I think that much of the slowdown can be attributed to the faltering economy - people realise that the economy is on extremely shaky foundations and are prioritising spending. With the possible exception of BMW, I don't think we'll see a post July sales bonanza. A lot of car salespeople are going to be looking for new jobs next year...

niceirishfella

Sizzler wrote: »

Have you had to drop your trousers to get a sale?

People right now are having to drop their trousers and bend over to shift their cars.
Great time to be buying at the mo - a great time.

tiredmam

Tell me about it!! Im selling mine as well this past 4 months. The car is in a garage also.
It is under the price other car sites are selling it at, and even so the price is negotiable. I really need the money at the moment for it.

niceirishfella

I know, I've been there too - needing the moeny tied up in something........hang on in there........it'll come good fella!

tiredmam

lol im a woman

niceirishfella

opppssssssssssss, sorry, hang on in there MAM!

tiredmam

Hahahaha your grand.

x in the city

you could prob get better car sales now if you were in the moon....:eek:

I'm sure the market confusion isn't helped by the two U turns the governemnt did on VRT and tax after introducing it.

johnf2020

Car sales jobs going in the middle east selling to the US ARMY ETC--GOOD MONEY I BELIEVE

sk8board

johnf2020 wrote: »

Car sales jobs going in the middle east selling to the US ARMY ETC--GOOD MONEY I BELIEVE

Thats right, selling to the armed Forces. Based on an Aircraft Carrier, or Army base in one of the war zones, selling tax-free cars/jeeps to the soldiers, ready for collection when the soldier returns home.
Its all commission based, tax-free, and there is no contract. You are a civilian in a war-zone.
__

Back on Topic, there was a motor-trade guy (SIMI I think) on Matt Cooper on wednesday evening discussing the drop in 2nd hand car prices. He was blaming it on the number of 'cowboy' traders in the motor trade, importing cars (65-70k cars p.a), and discussing the drop in new-car sales this year.

No mentioned of the big drop anyone who bought a diesel car in the past 18 months (especially bought in '08) are going to see when July comes because of the dealers with-holding the price-lists.
Also discussed everyone holding off to '-09 and not buying in July.

I almost felt sorry for him.

yellow012

[QUOTE
Back on Topic, there was a motor-trade guy (SIMI I think) on Matt Cooper on wednesday evening discussing the drop in 2nd hand car prices. He was blaming it on the number of 'cowboy' traders in the motor trade, importing cars (65-70k cars p.a), and discussing the drop in new-car sales this year.

No mentioned of the big drop anyone who bought a diesel car in the past 18 months (especially bought in '08) are going to see when July comes because of the dealers with-holding the price-lists.
Also discussed everyone holding off to '-09 and not buying in July.

I almost felt sorry for him.[/QUOTE]

Yeah he is some gob****e. He works for a company called Pragmatica or something and any time he's on, he just comes across as a mouthpiece for SIMI. Matt Cooper knows feck all about cars so doesn't pull him up on any of the shyte he comes out with.

GoneShootin

I've mine on carzone [see sig], autotrader, buy and sell, adverts.ie - and not a sniff.

sk8board

GoneShootin wrote: »

I've mine on carzone - and not a sniff.

2 colleagues were selling their cars late last year. One was a '93 BMW 320i with massive miles and not a straight panel on it; the other was the saloon verion of the Seat Ibiza.
the guy with the beemer almost had to de-list his mobile number he got so many calls.(he even had 'currently over-heating'! in the ad).
The lady with the seat never got a call, and ended up trading a 1-yo car for €11k to a garage.

WHITE_P

Had an 06 Highline Passat with very low milage on carzone for months, got a few calls but no one bothered to come and look at it. I traded it in last month and the dealer has sold it already, for more than I was looking for it.

I'd say the market is a real mess, particularly for private sellers.

niceirishfella

The market is a mess alright, for everyone.

The Price of Diesel - and petrol.
The confusion of july
The slowing economy
The bloody green party...................

what a mess!

sk8board

niceirishfella wrote: »

The market is a mess alright, for everyone.

everyone except those looking to buy theres value to be found

redbag

Certain cars will move - stuck up an E30 325i on Sunday night, had cash in my pocket by Wednesday. Car has to be well priced and stand out.

However, have to sell a 1.6 A4 in July which will be a totally different proposition, so it's impossible to give a rule of thumb. Entirely up to what you are selling.

CyberGhost

Selling a VW Polo, at 2200, no one was calling, I reslited it and made a mistake of pasting 1200 instead of 2200, I got 50+ calls in a week.

So, yea, people are looking, they just want things for a really really low price.

E92

The whole VRT situation is undoubtedly the reason why the second hand car market is dead. We're only 6 weeks out from the VRT changes at this stage, and I don't think until we see more July pricelists that things are going to improve. All the people importing from the UK means that there is silly oversupply in the market too, depressing pries even further.

cianclarke

Took four months to sell a 2000 1.6l passat with 110k - only went once I put a serious push on it.
Was asking 5k for a while, when I get serious I dropped to 4200, then 4000. Even at that it took a month, and had to take 3500 - I really wanted at least four, but hey... Just wanted to be rid of it.
Now I'm in the position of the buyer and can take advantage of the fact that private sellers are ****ed... Problem is I'm buying a bimmer - for which there's always demand, even presently, am I right?

biggus

Almost all cars on carzone etc are overpriced. Every one checks what their Model car is advertised at, and lobs in a similar price. Unless its rare car, it needs to be substantially cheaper than the cheapest similar one available.
I sold an 2007 convertable Eos,there were only 15 others country wide for sale .I always had it listed cheapest and it had low miles good spec, nice colour and D reg. Took three months But got the full albeit low asking price.

If the car you're selling is not rare, slash the price.

A New model Focus is a great car but there are 1778 Focus of 2005 to 2007 on carzone

If all those Focus @ 4.488 meters long were parked bumper to bumper there's 8km of them for sale today. Ok its Irelands most popular car but

There's 332 range rovers !!! for sale


Recently there was a 2006 Mercedes S350 current model for sale by non merc main dealer priced 15k Less then average of other 12 available ... nothing wrong with car,no high miles right colour and spec ,still took over a month to sell.

Some cars are for sale on carzone for over a year

peasant

Well, slashing the price only makes sense to a certain point.

Unless you absolutely have to sell your car, there may come a point where it makes more financial sense to just forget about getting a new car / extension / holiday and keep on driving it until the market picks up again.

sk8board

If a 2 yo car is listed for 6 months or more, then surely its lost about 7-8% to natural depreciation anyway, so the price needs to be dropped.

junkyard

Selling cars is a thing of the past down my way, I even know a few salesmen on commission only, I've never seen it so bad tbh. At the rate things are going in this country the only bussiness that's making money here is the illigal drugs trade, bussinesses in general are being squeezed so hard by the downturn in the economy and the revenue. A very sorry state of affairs it is.:(

GoneShootin

junkyard wrote: »

bussinesses in general are being squeezed so hard by the downturn in the economy and the revenue(

Not to go completely off topic, but businesses are being squeezed because many of them still think that they can throw money away like they were doing a few years ago under the impression that more money was easily made.

Anyway peasant you make a good point. Unless you really NEED to shift your car then at the moment trying to sell it isn't a good idea as you won't get the kind of cash back that your car deserves. I'm selling mine, but I'm quite happy to keep driving it until it implodes. It will be the last time I fork out "big" money for a car. Next time if I get the opportunity I'll buy an aul diesel banger and drive it away...

vibe666

it's a piece of p1ss to sell a car, you'll have no bother at all getting it snapped up for the right price. but that's the problem not your right price, theirs.

the best advice i can give is to put a link to it here and ask honest opinions from the boardsies on what it would take to get a buyer.

thats what I did after having mine on the market for several months at what I thought was a good price and getting nowhere despite having ads everywhere i could think and spending several hundred quid on getting them out to as many people as i could via the web, carzone, cbg, indo etc. car of the week type stuff got me nowt.

listening to people on here and taking their advice on board i had it sold from free ads online inside 2 weeks. i didn't get what i wanted for it, but if you really want to sell it then you'll have to get used to that idea pretty quickly. the way things are right now if you want to sell it, it has to be too good to pass up for potential buyers. the market is flooded with motors that aren't shifting, so you have to bite the bullet and make it worth buying with that sort of competition around.

junkyard

The only cars that are being sold out there are the ones being thrown away by their owners, there is no profit to be made, if there's no profit to be made there's not much point in keeping the business open be it cars or any other one for that matter.

niceirishfella

CyberGhost wrote: »

Selling a VW Polo, at 2200, no one was calling, I reslited it and made a mistake of pasting 1200 instead of 2200, I got 50+ calls in a week.

So, yea, people are looking, they just want things for a really really low price.

Good point CyberGhost...........i guess this is why you see ad's with POA for the price........to encourage the mystery of the price and the calls.

BlackWizard

I just put mine up for sale on carzone. Had it up on a freesite for a few weeks and got nothing.

As CyberGhost experienced, Ill probably have to do the same. Dealerships are giving me a good price, but I'd prefer to have the cash ( I can buy from private then ).

djeclips

vibe666 wrote: »

it's a piece of p1ss to sell a car, you'll have no bother at all getting it snapped up for the right price. but that's the problem not your right price, theirs.

the best advice i can give is to put a link to it here and ask honest opinions from the boardsies on what it would take to get a buyer.

thats what I did after having mine on the market for several months at what I thought was a good price and getting nowhere despite having ads everywhere i could think and spending several hundred quid on getting them out to as many people as i could via the web, carzone, cbg, indo etc. car of the week type stuff got me nowt.

listening to people on here and taking their advice on board i had it sold from free ads online inside 2 weeks. i didn't get what i wanted for it, but if you really want to sell it then you'll have to get used to that idea pretty quickly. the way things are right now if you want to sell it, it has to be too good to pass up for potential buyers. the market is flooded with motors that aren't shifting, so you have to bite the bullet and make it worth buying with that sort of competition around.

Give mine you're best shot vibe666, in my cig at the bottom.....up for 8 months over 9500 views on carzone and only three test drives one had to sell his first other was going to keep his 1.8 zs and see what the new Mg comes out as and the third bought the 1.4 version instead. Now I know it's an "Rover" but am off for Canada in September and it needs shifting before then,with the way things are it's not looking likely.

Opinions???

Cheers,
Col.

peasant

djeclips wrote: »

Give mine you're best shot vibe666, in my cig at the bottom.....up for 8 months over 9500 views on carzone and only three test drives one had to sell his first other was going to keep his 1.8 zs and see what the new Mg comes out as and the third bought the 1.4 version instead. Now I know it's an "Rover" but am off for Canada in September and it needs shifting before then,with the way things are it's not looking likely.

Opinions???

Cheers,
Col.

Well, on the face of it, a 04 performance car for 12 k is a good deal.

Two problems:
a) it's a Rover
b) it only appeals to cash strapped youngfellas (you won't sell this car to an older gentleman with money in his pocket) ...and for a little more than half the money they could get a 2.5 liter Beemer. Older, granted ...but Beemer nonetheless.

All I can say is ...good luck with yours!
(Have you tried advertising it on MG fora or in "boyracer" magazines ?)

masterwriter

Padraig Mor wrote: »

are mainly focussing on trying to flog titchy-engined petrol "Paddy specials" to none-the-wiser customers while they still can.

What does paddy specials mean?

vibe666

djeclips wrote: »

Give mine you're best shot vibe666

sorry col, I'm not really an expert on that sort of thing myself, but i know a lot of people on here are and will give you their honest opinions. like i said, following on from posting here my motor was sold inside 2 weeks. i didn't get what I wanted, but I did get shot of it.

astraboy

masterwriter wrote: »

What does paddy specials mean?

It means very low spec standard cars with small CC engines, say 1L hatchbacks and 1.6L saloons, due to putitative VRT. These 'paddy specials' are of low spec without extra airbags, electronic safety devices, or electric windows for instance, lowering the amoutn of VRT and VAT to be payed on the car. These will hopefully be a thing of the past with the new CO2 based VRT.

masterwriter

astraboy wrote: »

It means very low spec standard cars with small CC engines, say 1L hatchbacks and 1.6L saloons, due to putitative VRT. These 'paddy specials' are of low spec without extra airbags, electronic safety devices, or electric windows for instance, lowering the amoutn of VRT and VAT to be payed on the car. These will hopefully be a thing of the past with the new CO2 based VRT.

OK thank you. Have you a link where I can read details of the new co2 based VRT.
Edit I see this only applies to new cars, so why is it having such effect on the market?

vibe666

because people don't understand it, or it's implications so the tendency is to just wait and see what happens.

there's a good thread on it in the motors forum which i think may even be stickied, but if it's not I'm sure someone will give you the link (i'm just off to bed, sorry ).

miju

I sold an old 2000 reg car early this year for 4k and I honest to god only had it up for sale for 4 days.

niceirishfella wrote: »

.i guess this is why you see ad's with POA for the price........to encourage the mystery of the price and the calls.

I always presume everyone else does exactly what I do when I see POA and thats not even bother reading the rest of the ad and move onto the next one

Padraig Mor

miju wrote: »

I always presume everyone else does exactly what I do when I see POA and thats not even bother reading the rest of the ad and move onto the next one

Exactly what I do.

Sesshoumaru

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Exactly what I do.

Same as me, order them by price with POA at the start and always completely ignore those cars.

jank

Oh dear. Im selling my 03 MR2 soon and this has me worried.
At least the car is a bit different!

alias no.9

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

Same as me, order them by price with POA at the start and always completely ignore those cars.

+1


Back to the original question, there are plenty of prospective buyers. The toughest challenge is to get someone to come and view the car. Your add is critical in this respect, describe the car honestly and completely, take good pictures in full daylight and price it realistically. During a viewing, have any documents close at hand, stand back while they're checking it out, allow them space but be there to answer any questions. If they want to test drive, sit in the back and again keep quiet except to answer any questions they have. When it comes to negotiating on price, do not turn down a firm offer for the sake of a few hundred euro, by all means hold firm for as long as you can but don't let them walk away empty handed.

biggus

The problem for Jank (selling Mr2 soon) is,although he has a reasonably rare car he's in competition with uk prices who's sellers are having their own problems.
Built in discount with the value of sterling versus Euro has not properly reflected on prices asked here yet.

joseywales

Sizzler wrote: »

I saw an article in the Indo the other saying due to the impending VRT changes and the 'credit crunch' (that 'ol chestnut) 2nd hand car prices had dropped 20-30% this year alone. This was based on a survey carried out by GE Money.

I was casually selling my car the last few months, defnition of casual, I had a price in my head which was in line with what everybody else was asking on CBG & Carzone and I couldnt be arsed if someone bought it or not. Had a few tyrekickers come out but only one offer. That was 2 months ago, and he offered me 1k less than I was willing to go, so I said feck it, no thanks. I was happy to hold onto it.

Fast forward to May and I'm now looking to actually sell it as I want to nip across and get a car from the UK for July 1st and with the STG rate dropping I figured it was a good time.

I checked out carzone again and I relisted my car as the cheapest for that spec, mileage and year by €500. I log on yesterday and some lad has gone in and put practically the same car in for €1000 less than mine !

I'm only selling an 03 so a grand less is a lot in the scheme of things!

How are people finding it now? Have you had to drop your trousers to get a sale?

Following up from this any opinions appreciated as to what asking price should be for this car which I have on carzone.

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1056121

djeclips

peasant wrote: »

Well, on the face of it, a 04 performance car for 12 k is a good deal.

Two problems:
a) it's a Rover
b) it only appeals to cash strapped youngfellas (you won't sell this car to an older gentleman with money in his pocket) ...and for a little more than half the money they could get a 2.5 liter Beemer. Older, granted ...but Beemer nonetheless.

All I can say is ...good luck with yours!
(Have you tried advertising it on MG fora or in "boyracer" magazines ?)

Not allot in the Mg front in Ireland most are English based and the Vrt kills that one....but suppose you never know who's browsing.

Yep being a "Rover" puts allot off that might be 50/50 Because the general tone is don't touch with a barge pole. Have to say though in 6 years I've had three Mg's and done about 115,000 and no problems bar the ignition coil failing in my last Zs a couple of weeks after delivery. Never a blip after.

Cheers for the reply!

Col.